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The solutions

The factors related to creating more affordable homes — supply, credit, land and communities — are interconnected, and policies that address challenges related to affordability impact multiple elements.

The Cost of Home campaign is built on four areas of policy focus detailed in our Cost of Home policy platform.

Four years into the campaign, local Habitat organizations have achieved 300+ policy changes enabling 6.6 million people to have greater access to affordable homes. Read the Urban Institute’s assessment of these policy successes.

The Cost of Home campaign is increasing home affordability
by influencing policies focused on:

 

Increasing supply and preservation of affordable homes

We support policies that increase the production, preservation and accessibility of homes that are affordable for lower-income households.

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Equitably increasing access to credit

We support policies that increase and broaden access to safe and sound credit for underserved populations.

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Optimizing land use for affordable homes

We support policies related to land acquisition, use and development that bring down the cost of building, promote fair housing, and fully reflect community needs.

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Ensuring access to and development of communities of opportunity

We support policies that protect and strengthen neighborhoods and enable communities to thrive.

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Cost of Home federal policy agenda

The Cost of Home federal policy agenda outlines 10 high-impact federal policy solutions that Habitat is collectively advocating for to significantly improve access to safe and affordable homes for 10 million individuals.  

Learn more about opportunity vouchers and federal incentives to accelerate state and local zoning reforms — two of the top priorities in the campaign’s federal policy agenda. 

We urge policymakers from the local, state and federal levels to support comprehensive packages that address the increasing cost of housing across the rental and homeownership spectrum to meet the needs of low-income individuals and families nationwide.

Habitat organizations implementing Cost of Home

Habitat affiliates across the U.S. are working in partnership with coalitions and policymakers to influence policies to increase home affordability.

 

Cost of Home impact

Discover the ongoing impact the Cost of Home campaign on improving home affordability: explore policy successes supported by local and state Habitat organizations, strategies for advocacy practitioners to effect policy change and a policy assessment report by the Urban Institute.

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Strategies for housing advocates to effect policy change

Habitat funded the Urban Institute to assess eight policy changes and conduct interviews with various stakeholders. Based on their findings, Urban Institute researchers found six key strategies for change delivering policy and systems change at local, state and federal levels. 

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What is housing affordability?

Families across the United States are paying too high a price to cover the cost of home. Rents and homeownership costs are skyrocketing while wages are not keeping pace. Everyone should have enough money left over after paying rent or mortgage costs to cover life’s necessities.

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